Border Trade Zone to Open on Armed Force Day

The Burmese regime is planning to open a border trade zone near Myawaddy, a town on the Thai-Burmese border, on March 27, according to a report in The Myanmar Times, a semi-official weekly. March 27 is Armed Forces Day in Burma.

“The zone is aimed at promoting trade between the two countries and has been built on the 200-km section of highway between Myawaddy and Mawlamyine [Moulmein], the capital of Mon State. The zone is about 10 km from Myawaddy,” said the report.

Han Tun, vice chairman of the Myanmar Fisheries Federation, told the weekly that the authorities had originally planned to open the trade zone in February, but postponed the opening ceremony to March due to construction delays.

Buildings for import and export inspections have already been completed and warehouses and shops for the trade zone are on track to be finished by March 27, but some buildings will still be under construction at the time of the opening, said Han Tun.
Construction of the 188-hectare Myawaddy trade zone in Karen State, bordering Thailand’s Mae Sot Province, began in 2006 in a bid to transform border trade into normal trade.

The Myawaddy Border Trade Zone, which will highlight Burma’s marine products, is set to become the second largest zone of its kind in the country, after the 105th Mile Border Trade Zone in Muse, opposite Ruili in the Chinese province of Yunnan, which opened in April 2006.

According to official statistics, Thailand stood as Burma’s top trading partner as well as its biggest importer during the fiscal year 2006-07, with a bilateral trade volume of US $2.659 billion, of which Burma’s exports to Thailand amounted to $2.409 billion.

Trade between the two countries accounted for over 30 percent of Burma’s total foreign trade, which reached nearly $8 billion in the same year. Official figures also show that the border trade volume in 2006-07 amounted to $248 million.

Official data also says in the first half of 2007-08, Burma-Thailand bilateral trade reached $1.943 billion, of which Burma’s exports to Thailand came to $1.694 billion. Burma has a total of 13 main border trade points with four neighboring countries—China, Thailand, India and Bangladesh.

Meanwhile, last month’s assassination of a leading Karen rebel leader, Mahn Sha, in Mae Sot has cast a pall over the anticipated boon to the local economy. Security in the area remains high since Mahn Sha’s death on February 14. At least two bomb blasts have hit the border town in recent weeks, including one that went off on Thursday near the Thai-Myanmar Friendship Bridge, claiming the life of a Burmese man.

“I hope that after the trade zone in Myawaddy opens, the border trade will improve. But at the moment, our border business is in limbo because of security concerns,” Kyaw Kyaw, a Burmese businessman in Mae Sot, told The Irrawaddy on Friday.